Friday, August 08, 2008

How global warming zealots hurt their own cause

The faithful followers of Al Gore and all the rest in the climate change religion have damaged their own cause, perhaps irreversibly. By clinging to the dogma of anthropogenic climate change from carbon emissions, branding skeptics as heretics and insisting on saving the planet by destroying its global economy, they've more than earned all the scorn they get.

Their intractable stance - that the world must stop using fossil fuels now and switch to energy sources that don't yet exist - is the cause of the current price of oil. When Nancy Pelosi responds to the question of why she so staunchly opposes expanded domestic oil production by saying "I'm trying to save the planet", thinking people know right away we have a problem.

There are sufficiently good reasons for weaning ourselves off of fossil fuels in favor of new energy sources without engaging the contentious issue of climate change. Cleaner air and stopping the transfer of wealth to countries inimical to our interests should be enough to get everyone on the same page. But no. Al Gore and the rest of the Gorons would have us believe that if we don't drastically reduce carbon emissions right fucking now we'll suffer simultaneously from floods, droughts, extreme heat, extreme cold, more frequent and more intense hurricanes, and coastal plains under water from rising sea levels. Never mind that the evidence doesn't support their theories.

The reality is that the Gorons - along with the Democrats whose campaign coffers they fill - don't want lower fuel prices. Their fear is that if gas drops to, say, $2.00 per gallon, there will be less pressure from the public to develop alternative energy sources. As usual, the lefties reveal their low opinion of the American public. Americans don't want dirty air and they don't want to send supertanker loads of money to countries that hate us. But to clean up the air, we first have to stop transferring wealth out of the country and keep our economy strong by not having all our disposable income depleted by the high costs of filling our cars and heating our homes. And the Democrat-controlled Congress wants to make matters worse by raising the federal tax on gasoline to make up for tax revenue lost by people using less gas.

True energy innovation will be a product of a robust economy, not a product of a government edict to Detroit to build more fuel-efficient vehicles. Expanded domestic oil production will provide jobs, lower the cost of fuel and drive real economic growth. A sound energy policy that includes domestic drilling and incentives to develop low-cost, clean and sustainable energy alternatives will achieve what the enviro-whackos want in years, not decades.